In this paper we present Family Accounts, a new user account model for shared
home computers. We conducted a study with sixteen families, eight who used
individual profiles at home, and eight who shared a single profile. Our results
demonstrate that Family Accounts is a good compromise between a single shared
profile and individual profiles for each family member. In particular, we
observed that because Family Accounts allowed individuals to switch profiles
without forcing them to interrupt their tasks, family members tended to switch to
their own profiles only when a task required some degree of privacy or
personalization.